Koenigsbauer and other officials at the roundtable event
Microsoft Qatar has said that Office 365 will be a key element in its plans to provide world-class collaboration tools to Qatar businesses.
Microsoft Office 365, the company’s newest cloud service, brings together Microsoft Office, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft Exchange Online and Microsoft Lync Online in an always up-to-date cloud service, at a predictable monthly
subscription.
Kirk Koenigsbauer, Microsoft corporate vice president, said: “Businesses today are looking for technologies that help them make an even bigger impact and with Office 365, we believe we have the solution to enhance collaboration and productivity for businesses of all sizes in Qatar.”
Naim Yazbeck, country manager, Microsoft Qatar, which is located at Qatar Science & Technology Park, said: “Microsoft’s cloud computing solutions, such as Office 365, are geared to support emerging economies like Qatar and accelerate the growth of local innovation industries in the country.
“In addition to enterprises, Office 365 will also help the SME (small & medium enterprise) community in Qatar. SMEs typically have little or no IT support and very little time and financial resources to dedicate to technology. Office 365 can play a significant role in helping their employees share information in new ways that boost productivity and minimise IT costs.”
Office 365 was introduced in beta last year and received an enthusiastic response. In a few months, more than 200,000 organisations worldwide signed up and began testing it. With Office 365, people can stay on the “same page” using instant messaging and virtual meetings with people who are just down the hall or on the other side of the world. They can work on files and documents at the same time and share ideas as easily as they can share calendars. Office 365 gives people new ways to work together with ease, on virtually any device.
Through the new competency based Microsoft Partner Programme, Microsoft is also working with its partners in Qatar to deliver the right focus and expertise that customers need.
In the last 12 months, the Office 365 partner ecosystem has more than doubled in size – from 16,000 to more than 41,000 partners worldwide.
Microsoft will roll out a wide range of service plans that are designed to meet the needs of a variety of companies of different sizes at the time of Office 365’s commercial launch.
With Office 365, businesses can pay a monthly subscription, or they can connect Office software that they own already with the Office 365 service.

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